


Manta Rays

by tinyforestshark



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, M/M, MerMay, MerMay 2018, Mermaid Genji Shimada, Mermaid Hanzo Shimada, Trans Jesse McCree, Werewolf Ana, Werewolf Jack, Werewolf Jesse McCree, alcohol use, but i wanna be clear, its not significant cause i dont even know if i want them to bone in this fic, just to be clear, theres other characters but i dont want to name everyone who is offhandedly mentioned, werewolf Gabe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-04 20:18:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14600910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyforestshark/pseuds/tinyforestshark
Summary: "All I wantIs to know your nameAnd whisper it in your earWith your arms around my neck.You've haunted me in colorsI've never seenI feel strange and unprotected,Sailing through the dark to the lunar faceYour pupils shining over time and spaceWe are two creatures each wrapped aroundThe other without a sound,Safe at home,Falling slowly."My MerMay 2018 fic, mermaid Hanzo and werewolf McCree stumble upon each other and find something they never knew they wanted





	1. I Wonder If You Think of Me

**Author's Note:**

> Big, huge, gigantic thanks to Dracoduceus (or ClassyWastelandBread on tumblr) for Beta-ing for me, you're my hero.

Hanzo startles out of his thoughts when he hears something else moving through the woods and crouches lower to the ground. It was nighttime and he was far from any town so the only beings awake and out could be dangerous. He shifts his makeshift skirt to the side to keep the knot from digging into his hip before he silently leaps to grab the lowest branch of a tree. He works his way up a few more branches and hopes that whatever he had heard does not follow. He looks towards the ground and waits silently, hoping whatever it was moved away.

“It” turns out to be a large wolf with dark brown fur that was nearly invisible among the dried leaves on the forest floor. Hanzo shivers in the winter night air out of both cold and dread of what might happen if this beast catches his scent. He holds his breath when the wolf does, in fact, lift his nose and scent the air. It snuffles around the area where Hanzo had been foraging moments ago and around the base of the tree. It circles the tree and Hanzo fears that it will look up and catch him before it stops and shuffles forwards. Hanzo covers his mouth with his hand to hide his slightly manic chuckle when, instead of leaping up and devouring him, the wolf simply raises a leg and marks the tree. It was startling to fear so deeply only for the situation to take such a benign turn. The wolf sniffs a bit once more then trots back into the woods. Hanzo leaps down, avoiding the new puddle, and, scooping up his berries, munches on them as he heads back towards the beach.

He does not notice the eyes watching him from the bushes nor does he hear the suddenly silent beast stalk after him. Hanzo finishes his berries when he gets to the beach and continues walking straight into the water. The wolf watches as the man simply disappears beneath the waves.A beautiful blue and gold fish tail flicks above the surface briefly when Hanzo rises back to the surface to change directions, swimming downwards deeper into the ocean. The wolf makes the connection that the man and fish were the same and runs back to his pack.

~~~

“You should have seen him, Gabe! He was beautiful! As a human AND a mermaid.” McCree sighs and leans back against Gabe’s legs. Gabe hums in acknowledgement and continues to work a brush through McCree’s hair. It was always so knotted after shifting. “Deadly silent too. I wouldn’t have noticed someone was there if he didn’t smell so much like the ocean.” He grunts uncomfortably when Gabe gives up on gently working through the knot. Instead, he simply grabs the unruly chunk of hair to keep it from pulling on McCree’s head as he brushes harder. “Just leave it, it’ll only get worse tomorrow with the full moon.” McCree whines.

“You know it’s better if I fix it now. Besides, Jack doesn’t let messy pups in the den.” Gabe replies, finally working the fluffy locks free of each other. McCree sighed, resigning himself to the grooming as he always did. Gabe was right, anyhow. He had definitely been stuck outside the den a few times because he refused to sit still for clean-up after hunting. Jack was a stickler for the rules because he constantly worries about keeping the den clean and the pack free of pests. Gabe runs his fingers through McCree’s hair to check for any more knots and pats McCree’s head when he finds none. Happy to be finished, McCree wags his tail and gives Gabe a grateful smile. The pack leader rolls his eyes and leads the hunting group back to the den to portion out and store their bounty. Full moons are like minor holidays for werewolves since bringing hunts back to the den are a chore without the use of hands to carry bags. It means that they are limited to carrying one kill at a time, so they hunt the night before and prepare it for the next night.

McCree leaves his main group of friends, Sombra, Fareeha, and Hana, who he was eating dinner with to go find one of the pack elders. Ana would know more about mermaids; she knew everything about everything. She even gave him a knowing look when he tried to ask about mermaids as innocently as possible and he knows that Gabe had told her about his lovestruck rambling. She explains mermaids never ate anything off land so this mermaid going out of his way for berries was a little odd. McCree added that the mermaid was only wearing an old sail around his waist and Ana explains that this was also strange because most mermaid’s did not care about their modesty since they were always naked in the ocean anyways. Later that night, McCree tucks himself into his pile of pillows and blankets thinking about this handsome and strange mermaid.

~~~

The next day, Hanzo wakes to bubbles in his face, as usual. Genji loves waking him up by blowing air at him through a straw. The bubbles sometimes tickled Hanzo’s gills and he would wake with a screech and flail angrily in his brothers direction. Sometimes they even bothered his nose and caused him to sneeze. No matter the reaction, Genji found it endlessly humorous to mess with his brother and Hanzo lazily swats him away before Genji could get a rise out of him. He blearily opens his eyes to find Genji rapidly signing to him. _Brother! Get up! Get up! Today’s the day! Come on, get up!_ Sound traveled strangely through the water so mermaids prefered to use their own sign language rather than speak most of the time. It also allowed for mermaids to communicate at longer distances, which helped in the open waters. 

Hanzo nods and wiggles out of his little hole in the wall. _Yes, I’m up, Genji, I know. Why are you bothering me instead of getting ready?_ He asks before moving to the vanity mirror in the corner of the room and brushing his fingers through his hair to get the tangles out. He watches Genji spin and show off just how ready he was already in the mirror.

 _I’m already ready! I only need help with my makeup!_ Hanzo huffs despite Genji being right. The other mermaid has golden bangles up and down his arms and his fins are decorated with more of Hanzo’s piercings than his own, which makes Hanzo frown. He opens his box of piercings and digs through his hoard. He does have more jewelry than Genji, and better jewelry in his opinion, so no wonder Genji had stolen some of his. He puts in his silver bridge piercing as well as several eyebrow rings, earrings, and ear cuffs. He flares out his fins in the mirror and ignores Genji giggling behind him when Hanzo admires himself.

Hanzo waves Genji over and hands him several hair cuffs, chains, and decorations. Genji goes to work decorating and pinning up Hanzo’s hair while Hanzo gets out his makeup kit. Mermaid makeup was not like human makeup as it needed to be applied and stay on for extended periods underwater. Mermaid makeup was more gel-like and stuck to skin but not much else. Hanzo started with simple golden triangles under his eyes before smearing a thinner, glittery blue gel across his eyelids. He doodles some simple gold designs across his right arm but leaves his left blank as it was already decorated by the tattoo. 

By the time he is satisfied with his work, Genji is finished with is hair and they switch places. Genji sits in front of Hanzo’s vanity, facing Hanzo while Hanzo floats above him, his stomach at equal height with Genji’s face. His brother carefully applies a glittery black gel in the shape of their house crest, the twin dragons chasing each other, across Hanzo’s stomach while Hanzo decorates Genji’s shoulders. He starts with one green dot in the center then surrounds it with a series of dots in concentric circles, alternating between green and gold. When he is done, the outermost gold circle was the size of a saucer.

Genji finishes the dragons and tilts his head up to Hanzo. He closes his eyes so Hanzo can apply his green eyeshadow and golden swirls around the edges of his face. Hanzo takes the black glitter gel and moves down to do the design on Genji’s stomach to match his. Once satisfied, both brothers take a moment to look at themselves in the mirror. Genji squeals in delight and flits about the room as Hanzo puts on several rings before he is satisfied as well. Both head out into the ocean.

Other mermaids swim around the nearby reef, decorated similarly in glittery paints, colorful designs, and showing off their hoards by covering themselves in jewelry. The approaching full moon was a special holiday for mermaids. The moon was incredibly close to the Earth and the extra-high tide it brought along was cause for celebration. It was a sign of good luck and a chance to play under the moonlight, showing off their glitter and decorations: the moonlight bouncing off of them created the most beautiful ripples of reflected light in the water. When the tides fell again, mermaids took to the beaches to scavenge the marine life caught in the tide pools - an offering of a free feast given by the moon. Many mermaids used this as a chance to find mates; others, like Genji, used it as an opportunity to show off their charms. Unlike either group, Hanzo enjoyed the act of dressing up but ultimately preferred to be off alone, keeping away from the general reverie as he stuck near the shore. 

Hanzo follows Genji as he swims around, gathering his entourage of friends and finalizing his plans with them. Tonight, they were going to have a somewhat private party on the beach. Lucio had gotten human alcohol and they wanted to get going to gather wood and set up a bonfire. Once on land, the group of mermaids put on their glamours to hide most of their more water-friendly features and some of their decorations and makeup. If there were any humans nearby, it would help to avoid their invasive questions. They all split up with different chores and Hanzo leaves Genji chatting with Lucio to start hunting down some good pieces of wood to use for the bonfire.


	2. What secrets do you hide?

McCree spends most of his day near the den, unable to convince himself to go in to town for anything before the full moon. Instinct demands he stay near his pack, safe and warm. He leans against a tree and decides to smoke to put off the cravings while he is stuck in his wolf form. He hears someone wandering through the forest nearby and assumes it is one of his pack until the smell of the ocean reaches him again. He sniffs excitedly before stopping himself to focus on retracting his tail and tuck his wolf ears under his hat. He heads towards the sounds that what he hopes is the mermaid from yesterday and nearly bumps into him, startling Hanzo into dropping all his wood at their feet. McCree immediately scrambles to scoop it up “Sorry there, darling.” He pauses, thinking up a plausible excuse to be heading in the other’s direction “I thought you were a friend of mine.” He stands back up and gives Hanzo a broad smile while holding the sticks back out to him.

“Thank you…” Hanzo says quietly, staring McCree down warily. McCree feels the tension. He recognizes Hanzo because he saw the man in both of his forms, however briefly, but Hanzo cannot possibly recognize the wolf from last night as McCree.

McCree sticks his hand out quickly to introduce himself, forgetting that Hanzo’s arms are now full again. “Name’s Jesse.” Hanzo stares at his hand until he brings it back and awkwardly scratches at the back of his neck “Erm… what is your name?” McCree tries again. Hanzo purses his lips momentarily, unsure about giving McCree his name.

“Hanzo. You said you had a friend nearby? You should probably return to them.” Hanzo says stiffly before turning and trying to retrace his path back out of the woods. McCree is quick to follow.

“Oh, no. My friend’s gone off elsewhere. I assumed they had forgotten something.” He chuckles awkwardly, obviously lying. He holds his hands out again “Do you need help carrying that? What’re you gatherin’ wood for?”

Hanzo rolls his eyes at the weird and persistent stranger in the woods “I am having a bonfire with some friends. A _private_ get-together.” Hanzo emphasises the last words carefully and McCree starts to slow a bit.

“Oh. I’m sorry, darlin’. I didn’t mean to bother you none. I don’t meet a lot of new people and you’re the most handsome thing I’ve seen in years.” McCree smiles innocently before stopping “I hope you have fun at your party.” He adds before getting ready to head back towards his den.

Hanzo sighs deeply. This man was strange but he was also cute and looking like a kicked puppy at the Hanzo’s short rejection. He figures the man could easily be distracted by Genji once they all met up again and Hanzo could be left alone like he wanted “You can come with. My friends might not be opposed to more company.” McCree perks back up, nearly losing control of his tail and letting it back out to swish wildly, and he follows Hanzo quickly.

Both men make small talk as they head back to the beach. Both avoided talking about why each of them were so far away from human civilization and why McCree’s pretend friend would just ditch him out there, but it was pleasant and both men quickly settled into more comfortable conversation. Genji and his friends returned with fireworks, beer, and other miscellaneous kinds of human mischief and they all quickly introduce themselves, Genji, Lucio, Jamie, and Brigette. They spend most of the day doing normal beach-goer activities like swimming, suntanning, and drinking. The sun starts sliding lower now and only once all the mermaids finish setting up the fireworks does Hanzo notice that McCree has disappeared.

McCree slips away as fast as he can when he realizes that he can’t keep his tail hidden and he finds himself staring at squirrels darting around the edges of the forest more than anything else going on. He ducks into the forest and tucks away his clothes before letting the full moon shift him. He waits and watches the party continue from the edges of the forest. The first fireworks go off and he takes advantage of the noise that the group was making to howl, not wanting to scare the group too much. He soon hears two other responding howls. Glancing back at the group to make sure he didn’t startle anyone when he sees Hanzo off to the side, looking lonely and staring intently at the space McCree had just occupied. McCree shakes his head and shuffles off into the woods. He assumes that whatever thoughts Hanzo had probably wouldn’t last until morning with how much booze those mermaids had collected.

When he meets up with his pack, several pups have already started play fights with Gabe nearby to watch them and Jack was patrolling around the outside of the pack as a whole, keeping everyone near each other and always within a leader’s or elder’s line of sight. Full moons were “pack time” according to the elders and two pack leaders, so they kept everyone close and encouraged bonding. Jack nuzzles McCree in greeting and McCree responds in kind. Jack snuffles at McCree before giving the wolfish equivalent of a raised eyebrow; McCree rolls his shoulders in a shrug. Sure he smells like the ocean and some mermaids. He knows that Jack suspected McCree was looking for his mysterious mermaid that day anyways so Jack’s teasing shove didn’t bother McCree much. He heads over to his group of friends and climbs over them to lay on top of their snuggle pile. The smallest, Sombra, wiggles out from under him with an irritated huff at him to imply McCree was heavy and uncomfortable and he wheezes out a chuckle. The other, Fareeha, simply stands up, forcing McCree to roll off of her. McCree nuzzles each in greeting.

Meanwhile, on the beach, Hanzo tries not to drown in alcohol. He was actually having fun with McCree and the pretty fireworks would have been better with the warm man beside him. McCree’s attention being directed elsewhere would have given Hanzo a great excuse to lean against him and maybe flirt a little. Genji and his friends were indifferent, assuming McCree wanted to make his way back through the woods before it got dark and celebrated by taking off their glamours and dancing with each other around the campfire.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hanzo does not sleep. His brother, however, passes out with his head in Hanzo’s lap. Hanzo is so drunk but gets so lost in thought while running his fingers through Genji’s hair that he does not realize the time fly by. So when the sun begins to rise, he startles at the sudden warmth across his body, unaware of how long ago the fire died out. He shakes Genji awake, who hops up excitedly and begins to wake the others as Hanzo stands and stretches out. He heads towards the edge of the water, already searching for tidepools. Genji gets everyone up and they all decide to search as a group, enjoying the more social aspect of the event. Hanzo trudges off alone when their increasingly loud discussion reminds him that he drank way more than intended the previous night.

He finds himself enjoying hunting for tasty crabs and fish in the quiet morning light. It was early enough into winter that the nights did not get terribly cold but the warming rising sun still made everything sparkle with dew and feel like the world itself was slowly waking up. They chose this beach in particular for a reason too. It was fairly far from their little village of mermaids and there were so many other beaches closer to their home that most of the others will be fighting for. He fills up quickly though, with the overabundance of resources, and he heads back to the main area to wait for the others to join him. Tired of his legs, Hanzo sits in the shallow waters and shifts back into his mermaid form, sighing comfortably and laying back against the sand. He allows the sun to warm him as he relaxes until he is suddenly interrupted by a startling voice.

“Well Lord have mercy, you are the most beautiful goddamned man I have ever seen.” Hanzo spins around quickly, turning onto his belly to see McCree standing a few paces away with his hat against his chest and stars in his eyes. “I’m sorry if I scared ya, darlin’, I just couldn’t-” Hanzo interrupts him with a hiss and he quickly shoves himself back into slightly deeper waters.

“What are you doing here cowboy?” Hanzo’s mind quickly runs through all the worst possible outcomes of this and he quickly scans the beach for signs of other humans. Did McCree already know he was a mermaid? Was everything last night a trap to get Hanzo to trust him? His father had taught him that humans were dangerous and to be feared but when McCree’s look changes to one of hurt and regret and he quickly puts his hands up to try to stop Hanzo despite their distance.

“No! Don’t go! Dammit, I went and scared the piss outta ya, didn’t I? I-I...” McCree stumbles over his words as he tries to quickly explain himself to Hanzo in the least threatening way. He knew what it was like to fear humans discovering him. He sighs and fidgets with the hat in his hands, eyes downcast at that rather than at Hanzo “I just wanted to come back and apologize. I felt bad for runnin’ off last night. I just… I…” He presses his lips into a hard line, internally debating telling Hanzo about his similar condition. Hanzo sinks a little lower into the water, only his head visible now. He was still wary but McCree had not done anything dangerous and there was still no signs of other threats.

The tension snapped when voices echoed across the beach back at them. McCree jumps and, in his surprise, turns to run back into the forest. Judging by Hanzo’s flared ear fins and sinking lower, water coming up over his nose, it would have been more awkward to be caught there anyways. Hanzo drifts back up to the beach and considers chasing after McCree for more answers when Genji and crew quickly swarm on him to tell him about the octopus they found. They had it tied up and brought it back so they all could cook it and share. Hanzo rejects the offer and stays in the water while they start up the fire again.

-

McCree ignores everyone on his way back to the den and curls up in his nest with his hat over his face, embarrassed and ashamed at how much this man has affected McCree in two days. He hears someone approach and curls up into a tighter ball but the other simply gets comfy behind McCree before shifting McCree’s head into their lap. They do not try to remove his hat or the blankets, but they rub his back and humming low in their throat. McCree sniffles, overwhelmed with affection for his packmates and finally shifts his hat down enough to peer up at the other. Fareeha was leaning against the wall behind them with her eyes closed, she skips a couple notes in whatever song she was humming and McCree watches the way her eyebrows scrunch up a bit as she tries to hum it again correctly. She misses the notes again and McCree softly hums back, reminding her.

“It’s embarrassing you know my mother’s song better than I do.” She says and McCree chuckles.

“One, you aint the motherly typ- Ow!” McCree startles a bit when Fareeha smacks his shoulder. “Two,” He continues, “When you ran off for a few years, I spent a lot of time with your mama. I think she needed someone to baby so she wouldn’t go chasin’ after you.” Fareeha nods in acknowledgement and finally opens her eyes to look down at McCree. He looks away, knowing what was about to come out of her mouth already.

“You gonna tell me what’s got you all mopey, dumbass?” McCree flicks her wrist at the affectionate insult and sighs.

“I think I scared Hanzo off.” He rolls onto his back and Fareeha raises an eyebrow in question. “He’s the mermaid I couldn’t shut up about yesterday.” Fareeha rolls her eyes.

“You have such a soft heart.” McCree sticks his tongue out until Fareeha pinches it and he pulls it back into his mouth. “You’ll be fine. Maybe not act like such a dog?” They laugh and play fight for a bit until Sombra shuffles over.

“You guys are too loud and too rowdy. It’s late. How long have you been awake now, Jesse?” She grumbles as she joins in McCree’s nest. The man being question shrugs.

“I think I’m nearin’ 24 hours now.” Both girls sigh and roll their eyes in response. Their sensitive, rowdy friend always needed babying in their opinion and they made that clear as they quickly set up the nest with McCree trapped between them.

“We’re sleeping. Now. You need it. You’ll feel better when you wake up.” Fareeha huffs out. McCree grumbles but the warm blankets and his pack keeping him safe on all sides relaxed him enough to sleep.


	3. Now We're Swimming Deeper

Over the next few days, Hanzo finds himself coming back to that beach. He cannot think of why, only how it is dangerous, but this peninsula had the best berries and McCree was fascinating. There was clearly more that the man wanted to say and Hanzo was inexplicably curious. He swims up to the beach in the late afternoon and finds himself hanging around the beach and swimming around the edge of the peninsula it was on, before climbing up onto the land and searching for berries. He knew it was pointless to risk so much for some sweets but Hanzo had a sweet tooth the size of Texas and did not want to change his whole system for some guy.

Every once and a while, he sees that wolf that he saw the night before the party though. He is more careful now, always hidden by the time the wolf even comes by, but it sniffs around a lot more. Like it was seeking something specific out, the wolf never eats or hunts or takes a break, just sniffs around the treeline and beach. It used to come at the same time every night now but Hanzo finds it harder and harder to predict it, meaning that it was getting harder and harder to adequately hide beforehand. Ignoring the strange behaviors of one random wolf, Hanzo keeps returning, hoping to see McCree on his foraging trips but quickly losing hope.

One night, he decides to take a different route into the forest, hoping to avoid the wolf altogether. It turns out to be a great plan. Hanzo basically strolled through the bushes and trees, scooping up any and every sweet treat on his way. Licking the juices off of his fingers, he finds a nice, short tree to settle into while he digests. Considering his plan a success, Hanzo does not even bother to conceal himself too much or even rub dirt into his legs and arms to cover any smells he may be giving off.

A mistake, clearly, on his part, when something silently creeps up on him from the woods. McCree was not expecting to find Hanzo tonight, especially not in this part of the woods. He crouches way down under a bush, hoping not to be seen as he thinks of a plan. How could he just approach the other man? If he shifted, he would be naked. If he doesn’t, he could scare Hanzo. His choice is made for him, though, when Hanzo begins to sing for himself.

It is not often that Hanzo sings. He usually keeps it to himself and does not enjoy the easy meal that comes from luring stupid humans to their death. His song starts off slow, trying to stretch out his vocal chords and get into the mood, before it builds. He swings his feet, dangling over either side of the branch, to the tempo and takes a deep breath to sing louder. It is late at night now and he has not seen anything on his way. He does not expect much more than maybe a few birds to come and share the tree with him, which they do, tweeting along to the song sporadically. He certainly does not expect the wolf to come creeping out from the bushes, slowly, starry eyed, like a human.

Hanzo startles at the sight, then quickly resumes singing before the spell is broken for the wolf. Singing softly as he lifts his legs back up onto the tree branch and moving slowly up higher into the tree, Hanzo watches as the wolf slowly creeps forward. Eventually, when Hanzo stops retreating, it jumps to put its front paws up. Hanzo looks around briefly, seeing if there was a way for him to escape when his song is finished. He quickly finds a trail of trees all close enough that he could probably leap from one to the next. Adjusting his sail-skirt, Hanzo wraps his song up and hazards a glance back down to the wolf.

There was no wolf. Instead, a naked man was leaning against the tree, arms folded under his chin. He shared the same starry eyed look that the wolf held and Hanzo quickly recognizes him as McCree. His song abruptly stops “J-JESSE?!” He shouts in surprise, causing McCree to startle and blink away the spell. McCree looks up at Hanzo, then down at himself, then quickly leans against the tree again to hide his nakedness.

“Well.. H-hello, darlin’!” I-... I was just…” He scrambles for an excuse to be naked out in the woods right where a wolf was previously but comes up obviously empty. Hanzo huffs in anger before reaching down to his skirt and tearing it in half. After taking one half and wrapping it around to cover himself, he drops the other half on McCree’s head. McCree thanks him and he looks upwards to give the man his privacy and take a moment to think. This answers _a lot_ of questions. McCree was a werewolf. That night was the full moon. McCree tried to confess but it’s terrifying telling someone that you are something that is hunted down regularly.

Hanzo climbs down the tree quickly and leaps down from the last couple branches right when McCree finishes adjusting the sail around himself. Hanzo gives him _a look_ and McCree tries to jump right into apologies and excuses. Holding a hand up to stop him, Hanzo sighs “I get it. Jesse. I really do.” Muttering tiredly, the sudden adrenaline leaving his system and reminding himself how late it is “I don’t…. Want to talk about it tonight, okay?” McCree gives him a sad look but nods. Hanzo scoffs at the cute way McCree’s ears flop around his head and leans up to kiss him on the cheek.

“I’ll see you on the beach we met at tomorrow night, okay?” McCree nods, reluctantly watching Hanzo go. He shakes his head once more when Hanzo is out of range, still amazed by the awe inspiring singing, to be expected from a mermaid but McCree swears that Hanzo sounded good even without the trance he was dragged in to. Lingering for a moment more was a mistake though, tackled by two wolves is a fun way to get pine needles up in _everywhere_ with sap making everything stick. He shoves them off with a good natured growl and quickly shifts forms to chase after them and continue on the hunt that he was supposed to be on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Hanzo anxiously awaits sundown and avoids his brother who notices his unusual antsy demeanor. It is bad enough finding out that your crush and heartbreak were all for not and you have a real chance with them. It’s even worse when your brother teases you about it. The minute Hanzo finishes his duties for the day though, he’s shooting through the water before Genji even realizes that he’s done. He pauses deep in the shallows, taking gasping gulps of water, trying to smooth his hair and calm himself before moving up onto the beach.

Shaken out of his thoughts by a constant echoing tapping noise, Hanzo hisses and looks up to find the source. Rocks were being skipped into the water. Hanzo follows the trail to the source and sees a pair of feet, half buried in the sand, and strong legs leading to the water’s surface. A blurry image of a man in a cowboy hat can be seen so Hanzo lays himself down against the sand and slides up to him. He’s allowed to play with McCree a little, since the other man clearly knew he was a mermaid before telling Hanzo he was a werewolf. Hanzo grabs his ankles, yanking hard, and toppling the man over into the water with him.

McCree goes down with a very unmanly yelp, flailing. Once underwater, Hanzo pulls him close and presses his lips to the others mouth, blowing in air. McCree grasps his shoulders roughly, fearful at first until his mind catches up and he can relax into it, inhaling the air and shoving his fingers up into Hanzo’s hair. Hanzo lets them drift to the surface as they kiss, lazily flicking his tail to push them. Enjoying their first kiss, McCree does not even realizing they’re moving until his face breaks the surface and Hanzo wraps around him, underneath him, and keeping him boyant. McCree laughs loudlly “Well, aint that a hello if I ever got one.” Hanzo blushes, turning away but McCree brings his attention back gently with a hand under his chin.

“I’m not complainin’, darlin’. I just wasn’t expectin’ it. I thought you would be mad at me for hidin’ myself and all our flirtin’ before the full moon was just for fun.” Hanzo shakes his head.

“No. I cannot blame you for hiding who you were. I know the dangers of being who we are as well as you do. I want to be mad but I cannot. All I want is to be near you for some reason.” He huffs, pulling McCree even closer as if being apart was harming him. McCree rubs his face into Hanzo’s hair and cheeks in response, feeling the pull between them as well. 

“I missed ya, darlin’. Came back often lookin’ for ya.” He mutters and Hanzo hums in agreement. Letting the waves push them to shore, Hanzo lays across McCree’s chest once they reach the beach.

“I got better at hiding myself from the big, scary wolf I saw lurking around after the first time I spotted it.” He chuckles and McCree smiles, flashing his fangs at Hanzo, before closing his mouth and kissing the smaller man’s face.

 

\---------------------

There is a story about the woods south of the city. A story as old as the city itself, frightening children from delving too deep into the forest’s secrets. Some would dismiss them as they got older, others, the ones who would venture into the forest anyways, would come out with stories about wolves and other scary beasts haunting the trees. Only two men ever go in and come out of the forest unharmed and unafraid of the things it contains. They live in a little cottage on the beach on the opposite side of the forest. They come into town and educate children about environmental safety and the necessity of protecting the forest and its inhabitants, no matter how scary.

The shorter one talks about the reefs and safe fishing practices and children call him “pretty as a mermaid. The bigger talks about the circle of life and how it is safer to leave the wolves and the forest alone rather than take their land and force them into the cities. Children claim to have seen his fangs or wolf ears under his hat. Neither men dissuade the children. Parents and city members would fear these wild, fearless men if it wasn’t for the fact that almost every time someone goes missing, these are the men who will guide them back out of the woods.

“These things can cause some serious mental trauma.” People are told when they appear on the edge of the woods or soaking head to toe on the docks claiming to have been saved by mystical creatures. The men eventually retreat from the city, appearing less and less. They are forgotten, presumed dead, but people are still being saved. It is their job. People leave offerings and gifts on the edge of the woods or throw decomposable gifts in decomposable baskets into the ocean as thanks. The two old men still live with each other on the beach, but the city treats them like legends, myths, gods even.


End file.
